Over the years, a variety of aids and methods have been used to help teach or learn counting and simple math including, but not limited to, books, flash cards and a variety of toys and games. Such aids and methods are particularly useful in teaching children. However, educational methods are not the sole uses for this type of invention and the invention is not so limited. Other exemplary uses would include, but are not limited to household grocery lists or recipes, miscellaneous lists, and work status sheets in the manufacturing and service industries.
Conventional books, flash cards and games have met with varying degrees of success in providing an educational and entertaining tool. While books, flash cards and games can be useful with the assistance and in the presence of an instructor, they are not usually fun or motivating. Also, they do not provide a simple to manufacture means for the user to use a built in manipulative indicator, which possesses sufficient durability and enhances the learning process and makes learning less abstract and more concrete. Other educational methods are too complex, difficult to use and/or not fun and, therefore, do not successfully accomplish their objectives.
Aids of the aforementioned types take many forms. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,935,649 to Harte discloses one or more plates with recessed areas for inserting counting bars of various lengths and designated values to teach counting and mathematical functions. U.S. Pat. No. 4,050,698 to Brown teaches a deck of cards for assisting of the improvement in learning skills such as counting. By way of further example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,682 to Hildebrandt teaches an aid for counting utilizing numbered blocks slidable on rods held in frame.
No prior art, however, teaches or suggests using a device having at least one push button-type mechanism with two variable positions that can be changed by the user to mark an occurrence and allow the user to see relationships, which is useful for teaching or learning counting, simple math, fractions, reading, sorting, matching, or making, creating or recognizing pictures and/or patterns and for non-educational purposes. The use of the push button mechanism may be both tactile and auditory, further increasing the entertainment, educational or general utility of the invention. The ability of the user to see, feel and/or hear the device recording the occurrence of the event, be it counting or other designating the completion of a task, significantly increases the utility of the device.